KEVIN WILSON: Americans want accountability

Thursday

May 16, 2013 at 12:01 AMMay 16, 2013 at 11:26 PM

Do you remember the old Maytag commercials — the one that talked about the repairman being the loneliest job in the world?

Do you remember the old Maytag commercials — the one that talked about the repairman being the loneliest job in the world? I would imagine that’s kind of the way the President’s press secretary, Jay Carney, feels right about now. He has to be feeling pretty lonely at the White House press conferences.

I almost couldn’t believe it when I turned on the national network news last week and the first three stories were critical of the president. I thought for a minute that it was a flashback episode of when George W. was in office. In those days, the left-leaning national media always had something bad to say about the administration but not so much in the last 4 1/2 years. You can interpret that difference any way you want and I will leave it up to you to do so.

But, back to Jay Carney. He is in the unenviable position of having to explain what happened with the State Department, the IRS and the Attorney General’s office. Talk about a trifecta that you don’t want to bet on. What in the world is going on in Washington? I know a lot of us have been asking that question for a long time but now all of a sudden the rest of the country is catching on to what many of us have known for a long time — there is a lack of leadership.

I don’t know how much the president knew about any of these issues as they were going on and we might never fully know. But this much I do know: he is in charge and those are federal bureaucracies under his control. So, in the words of Harry Truman, the buck stops here.

Now granted, the president has fired the interim head of the IRS and has expressed his anger at the targeting of conservative groups. But that’s called leading from behind — you close the barn door after the horse has escaped and call it good because you kept the rest of the horses from getting away.

Why did anyone in the IRS bureaucracy think that they could get away with such a stunt and what about the attorney general and the secret collection of AP phone records? I understand the Benghazi fiasco. That’s just a classic CYA attempt and fortunately some bureaucrats with morals decided to come forward and expose that for what it was — a political cover-up to keep anyone from looking bad. And, regardless of what Secretary of State Hillary thinks, the explanation does matter.

But, what is more troubling is the blatant disregard for civil rights that was so clearly exhibited by the IRS and the AG’s office. And, instead of owning up to it and taking responsibility, everybody seems to be in the deflect mode and put the blame on everything besides a lack of leadership.

In most successful organizations, the leader will set the tone for that organization and the employees will have a clear understanding of what is and isn’t acceptable. It seems like in the case of the IRS and AG scandals what wasn’t acceptable was that they got caught.

I really think that this time the administration has stepped into something that will leave a lingering smell. The left-leaning national media has been in love with the president from day one of his administration. Oh, occasionally there was a criticism here or there but for the most part he has gotten a pass on things for which they would have crucified a conservative president.

But, this time the AG’s office went after the media itself and that just wasn’t the brightest thing in the world for them to do. I don’t think this is something that is going to be easily swept under a rug and it sure isn’t going to be forgotten. Nope, now the gloves are off and I think it will be a rocky time for the second term Obama administration.

Some of you might think I’m happy about all this but I’m not. There is no joy in seeing any administration of any political party abuse the power that is entrusted to it. Not only is it sad but it’s also pretty darn frightening for us average citizens.

What I am happy about is that all the media outlets have now decided that they need to hold this administration accountable for its actions. It’s high time that the tough questions are asked and answered. That’s all that I want and what Americans deserve and expect — fair and impartial reporting and accountability.